Google responds to Groupon’s rebuff

The world’s largest search engine is apparently unfazed after leading online deals firm Groupon Inc. rejected its US$6-billion acquisition offer.

In a Media Beat interview on Monday, Google Inc. vice-president of consumer products (and former VP of search) Marrissa Mayer explained how Mountain View, California-based Google is feeling after working so hard for something that it will never achieve. Apparently Google doesn’t need Groupon because it already has a (sort of) Groupon of its own.

“When you look at our overall suite of services, especially around our advertising, we already have some things that are like [Groupon],” explained the company’s 20th employee (now 20 out of 20,000) and first female engineer. “We have things like coupons and offer-extension ads that allow merchants to basically make offers to our users. And, so we’re looking at how can we take that technology and put it to use especially in the location space.”

In any case, some insight into how the search giant — which often seems to have things go its way — handles itself when things do not is always interesting. Perhaps the real reason Google wanted to buy Groupon was simply to find another creative way to spend its vast sums of cash.